Available Now

Autograph Books

Search

Search for:

Karen/K.L. Docter is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Karen’s Killer Book Bench: The Old Star by Elodie Parkes

Welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench where, every Wednesday, readers can discover talented new authors and take a peek inside their wonderful books. This is not an age-filtered site so all book peeks are PG-13 or better. Come back and visit often. Happy reading!

THE OLD STAR by ELODIE PARKES

Book Blurb

When Cathy Faraday goes out from her office to buy morning tea, a set of circumstances, send her on a different route from the one she would normally take. Waiting on a street unknown to her is a house. Old and left to fade away the house looks shabby against its neighbors. The whole row of houses are now offices and Cathy sees a ‘for let sign’ outside the place. Something draws her to the house. Someone watches from the third floor window.

Cathy applies to rent the building to expand her dating agency business. As she begins to make it ready, the house reveals its secrets.

A huge truck was on the lane Cathy expected to run down. It blocked everything. A car driver that had followed it down there was trying to reverse back along the lane. The truck driver had made a significant error of judgment. It took up both narrow sidewalks and people who had tried to squeeze past turned back. Cathy took what she thought was another route to the end of the lane where the row of shops were. The rain was driving down and she held her jacket collar up as drips from the overhanging roofs in this old part of town went straight down onto her neck and made her shiver.

She found herself on a long, narrow, street that she’d never been on before. It was lined with three story houses. Cathy was surprised. She had no idea there was a residential area so close to the high street. She walked quickly and turned right hoping she would meet the lane she was headed for as it joined this street, which looked as if it should run parallel.

Instead, the street opened up into a wide square and Cathy realized she might have to retrace her steps, and either squeeze past the truck, or go elsewhere for Tania’s morning tea. She walked to the far end of the square and saw the terraced office buildings on one side backed onto a green space. The end building of the terrace had an unkempt air and Cathy glanced at the windows. The downstairs windows were covered with newspapers to prevent people looking in. It caught Cathy’s attention because the article facing out was a headline report about scurrilous dating agencies. She’d read the article about four weeks ago and it had worried her.

Tacked onto the front of the building was a ‘for lease’ sign and Cathy took note of the real estate agency name. This whole side of the square was full of offices with brass plaques on the doors and brickwork. The doorknobs and mail slots were polished. Cathy realized this end building was the odd one out. She glanced at the upper stories. The windows were covered with newspaper. It had yellowed so it was older than that covering the downstairs windows. Cathy was about to continue on her way, suddenly aware that she was getting very wet from the continuous downpour, when she saw the name over the big oak door. It was carved into the stone lintel, The Old Star.

Copyright Elodie Parkes 2013

Meet Elodie Parkes, Author….

Elodie lives in Canterbury, United Kingdom. It’s famous for the Cathedral, Chaucer, and there is a UNESCO world heritage site, which includes the ancient ruins of St Augustine’s Abbey and St Martin’s Church. There is also a ruined castle. It’s a pretty place too and the coast nearby is great.

She works in an antiques shop and writes. Elodie has two dogs that keep her fit with their need for walks.

Elodie writes romance, contemporary and always erotic with a twist of mystery, paranormal, and suspense now and then. She likes to make the story unusual in some way, by a quirk in the tale.